The fault in "The Fault in Our Stars"

As always, spoilers!

To those of you who worship this book and its author: try not to hate me for what you are about to read.

As a teenage girl, I loved this book. I read it while snowed in on a Saturday with a cup of tea in hand. A few hours later I was crying all the tears and feeling all the feels. I commend you, Mr. Green, for being able to write from the perspective of a teenage girl while also being a middle-aged man. Your Hazel was wonderful, and your Augustus was on point. The message in this book was well put, and the story was very reader-friendly. One couldn't help but enjoy the tale, even up until the very, very tragic end.

As an AP Lit student, my critical mind tore this book apart. It was as if I was in a daze at first, because after I read TFIOS I couldn't stop telling everyone about how amazing it was. But a few weeks ago, the illusion was shattered when a friend of mine pointed out to me that "John Green knows how to write a story well, but did you ever notice that he really doesn't have a discernible plotline?" And the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Green writes well, I'll give him that. But where was the plot in TFIOS?

I'd like to take a moment to compare TFIOS to Looking For Alaska. First, we have the extremely likable protagonist, with a special obsession (Miles and the last words of people, and Hazel and her favorite book). Pay attention to this, folks, because this little obsession will later morph into a very important element of the book! Next, we have their respective love interests, both the ideal of what the opposite sex wants; Alaska is mysterious, adventurous, and mischievous, plus she reads books, is smart, and on top of all of that she has sex appeal. And Miles can't have her. Augustus is mysterious, adventurous, romantic, smart, funny, has sex appeal, etc. And Hazel can't have him. See a pattern here?

Fast forward to the part where both love interests become the antagonists. In both instances, it's right after the protagonist and their respective love interest get together. It goes from "Wow, they're finally getting together, hooray! Everything is going to be okay!" to, "Oh my God this is terrible, I can't believe that just happened, cry ALL the tears!", and eventually "What a great lesson learned about love and life and being a teenager!".

So, to sum it all up, everything before the shocking plot twist is sort of "fluff", because honestly, you don't know where the book is going until then. And don't get me wrong, its great fluff, it really is. But the plot doesn't really start until this shocking plot twist, and then there's tragedy, and then there are lessons learned, the end. Maybe I'm not the greatest judge of Mr. Green's writing because I've only read two of his novels. But this is just my opinion. You start reading TFIOS or Looking For Alaska and you think "Oh, this book is going to be about cancer and falling in love" or, "Oh, this book is going to be about boarding school and falling in love". And then 200 pages later John Green says "Nope, tricked you! Plot twist! Haha!"

Try your best not to hate me for this one, guys. I really did love this book, with all of its great fluff. It's a great read for a rainy day, or one of those days where you just need something to cry about. Trust me, with this one you will cry ALL the tears!